Dissenters

Dissenters, or Nonconformists, was the designation of all religious groups not belonging to the Church of England, such as the Independents, Baptists, Methodists, Quakers, etc. The Act of Toleration of 1689 granted such groups conditional toleration. Equal rights with members of the established state church were not granted them until 150 years later. In the Netherlands the Dissenters, including the Mennonites and Remonstrants, were conditionally tolerated like the Roman Catholics after 1584; in 1651 a new law was enacted limiting toleration of Dissenters and Catholics to those places only where they had been worshiping before; establishing congregations and building churches in new places was prohibited. In 1796 toleration was replaced by full recognition, the Dissenters and Catholics receiving the same rights as the Reformed State Church.